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Anyone, including students from outside of Scotland, that is a resident of Scotland for the majority of the year and aged 5 to 21 is eligible for the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme.

The Scottish Government do not calculate or hold information on the cost of delivering the scheme on a per person basis.

Initial views were sought on the criteria for the Changing Places Toilets (CPT) Fund at the CPT Cross Party Group on 14 November. We will not be undertaking a formal consultation on the draft criteria, but we will share them with key interests, including the Cross Party Group, in the New Year.

In addition to funding to support the expansion of access to diabetes technology already announced in the financial year 2024-2025, the draft Budget for 2025-2026 contains funding to support continued policy development for long term conditions including diabetes, respiratory conditions, chronic pain, neurological conditions, heart disease and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

In line with our Green Industrial Strategy, we are continuing to support Scotland’s energy transition. The draft 2025-26 Scottish Budget includes an allocation of £25m to support the development of hydrogen and carbon capture technologies, as well as initiatives to support Scotland’s businesses and industries to decarbonise and innovative projects such as the Energy Transition Zone in Aberdeen.

We recognise the importance of ensuring that everyone understands what a normal period is. We have developed a range of resources that anyone can access to learn more about periods, period symptoms and conditions like endometriosis, PCOS and PMS. More information can be found in the Women’s Health Plan 2021 - 2024 Final Report.

Additionally, in March 2023 we delivered an engagement campaign in partnership with Young Scot to increase young people’s awareness of endometriosis. The campaign is aimed at those aged 11 to 25 in Scotland, including boys and young men. The campaign includes information about endometriosis symptoms, provides information about available support and provides information on how to support a friend in the process of diagnosis or who may have endometriosis.

Menstrual health and wellbeing education is a key part of relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education. RSHP education is an integral part of the health and wellbeing area of the Scottish curriculum, Curriculum for Excellence.

An online RSHP teaching resource, (www.rshp.scot) was published in 2019 and provides age and stage appropriate learning activities on RSHP education for use in all education settings and is aligned to Curriculum for Excellence. This resource includes learning activities on menstruation from second level (P5 to P7), with endometriosis introduced at third/fourth level (S1 to S3).

The Women's Health Plan Implementation Programme Board was established to oversee and drive the delivery of the Plan. The Board brought together a range of organisations, including COSLA and Trade Union representation, to ensure that the actions within the Plan are implemented effectively and in partnership, with continued input and influence from women themselves.

The Boards stood down with the close of the first phase of the Plan. Updated governance will be developed alongside the second phase, to be published in 2025.

In NHS Scotland, a national menopause and menstrual health policy was published in October 2023, to seek to better support employees and their line managers.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has launched an e-learning module on menstrual health available on Turas Learnand in particular is aimed at those working in primary care. The school nursing workforce and school counsellors can also access this training as required.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32273 on 6 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The total size of the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund is £34 million. The UK government budget committed funding from which Barnett consequentials will be received, however, these are accrued to the Scottish Government as a whole and it is for Scottish Ministers to decide how they should be allocated based on their priorities.

A total of 28 projects have been funded through the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (SIETF). Refer to the Scottish Government website which includes a list of projects that have received SIETF grant offers from 2021 to 2024, along with case studies.